1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a training apparatus for supporting rehabilitation on patient's upper limb and lower limb according to a predetermined training program.
2. Description of Related Art
Since the rehabilitation aimed at motor function recovery of a stroke patient's hemiplegic upper limb or lower limb is generally provided by an occupational therapist or a physical therapist, efficient provision of the rehabilitation is limited. For example, in the rehabilitation aimed at the motor function recovery of an upper limb, an accurate movement of a paralyzed upper limb is mainly required to be passively and actively repeated to the utmost extent in a slightly wider range than a current range. An occupational therapist or physical therapist teaches a patient an accurate movement, and guides the patient an active movement while applying a passive load to a patient's upper limb through a procedure based on the rehabilitation relating to the motor function recovery.
In such rehabilitation, a repetition of the movement is limited due to therapist's physical limit. Further, a difference might be caused in a medical care quality of the rehabilitation according to therapist's experience. Therefore, for example, an upper limb training apparatus for supporting rehabilitation on a patient whose limb, such as an arm, is physically disabled is described in WO 2012/117488 A in order to support training provided by a therapist, eliminate restriction due to fatigue and normalize medical care quality as possible. This apparatus includes a stationary frame that can be arranged on a floor surface, a movable frame supported to the stationary frame so as to be capable of tilting in an omnidirectional way, and an operating rod that is telescopically attached to the movable frame and is manipulated by a person who undergoes training.
In the training apparatus disclosed in WO 2012/117488 A, a motion range of the operating rod (an operating rod mobile region) is set so that a patient does not fall from a chair during the training. In a conventional training apparatus, a motion speed of the operating rod is 0 in disregard of wishes of a patient who uses an operating rod at a time point when the operating rod reaches a boundary of the operating rod mobile region.
When the operating rod is desired to be moved along the boundary of the operating rod mobile region near the boundary, the conventional training apparatus stops the operating rod if a slight speed component towards an outside of the boundary is present. When the boundary has a circular shape, for example, and the operating rod is about to be moved along the boundary, a component toward the outside of the boundary is always generated, and thus the operating rod cannot be practically moved along the boundary.